I left Arnold and Marieke on the 13th and cycled back to the Auckland city center. There I cycled around a bit, visied the big tower in downtown and cycled south towards the airport afterwards.
 
I spent the night inside the airport, talking to other travelers, surfing the internet, boxing my bicycle and finally checking in for my flight to San Francisco. I was strongly disappointed with Qantas as they didn’t have the bicycle box they said they would have on the phone the day before. But the guys from Pacific Blue helped me out and even charged me with 5$ less than Qantas.
And then my flight QF164 took off to Sydney where I had to wait another 3 hours in the transit lounge and duty free area – I can’t think of a more boring thing to do … but the bunch of people you can observe passing these international traffic intersections can be quite interesting on the other hand.
Then flight QF073 took off to San Francisco. This was the first time I’ve been flying in a B747-400 and what a massive plane that is – took much longer to take off than the smaller ones I’d been flying with before.
 
The woman in the seat next to me had birthday and together with her husband they went on holidays to the US, visiting their daughter in LA.
I tried to sleep all the time but that was harder than usual as I didn’t have a window seat and so I was quite dizzy on my arrival in the northern hemisphere, in the summer of San Francisco.
And I just happened to arrive on one of the warmest days of the year! A screw of the rear axle got lost or has been removed during the flight and I therefore took the metro into town.
The atmosphere reminded me a lot to the hundreds of Hollywood movies I’ve seen on television and DVDs during my life: massive motorways, big cars, many Latino Americans and people from all parts of the world. I got off on 16th street metro stop and went straight to a bicycle shop to get my bike fixed.
Then I met Asha, a touring cyclist I had met through the WarmShowers list and who let me stay in the Station 40 living community.
Here I’ve had so much fun and done so many different things in the last 3 to 4 days – it’s really amazing! I’ll probably forget a few things but here’s a short list:
 
Collecting old food from a organic shop (from the garbage) and making delicious meals for the FOOD NOT BOMBS project from it, then the parade to celebrate the legalization of gay marriage in the evening, a ride to Bakers Beach in the west of San Francisco with a wonderful view on the Golden Gate Bridge, a visit to a book reading about activists life in the area during the last 10 years (the food there was free), in the evening we then fed (homeless people) on the square near 16th St, Mission St. crossing.
Matt, the guy living next to Asha, had birthday the next day and I was invited for the surprise party. I wanted to buy a beer and had forgotten my ID (passport). But instead of going home I asked a woman whom I had met in Station 40 whether she could get the beer for me so I wouldn’t have to go home … and she did; but the 10$ note I had (got that from the Bike Kitchen the day before) was a fake and later the woman in the shop threatened me to call the police if I won’t leave her shop immediately – wow!
Anyway, I got the beer (Matt’s birthday present) in the end from another shop.
In the park we had a lot of fun with Matt’s friends and family and a swing rope 
In the evening I helped to prepare food again (at least a bit), when Kirsten, Nicole and some others used the kitchen for their Access Cafe project where they give food to the community on a donation basis – really interesting!
(Alcatraz)
I didn’t participate in the writing party in the evening where everybody was sitting in front of their laptops and writing for hours and hours as I was pretty tired.
(Nicole’s sexy tattoo)
The next day held the “Bay to Breakers” parade where thousands of people went through the city in funny dresses and with a lot of alcohol. Afterwards I went to the Access Cafe – a really nice idea and a lot of people showed up! Congratulations to the girls!
 
Then I went to a CouchSurfing meeting in Golden Gate Park and met a lot of funny and interesting people again!
 
Today (Monday) my Adventure Cycling Association maps arrived and I am ready to go – can’t wait to explore the country and get to see nature and the Grand Canyon …
Amazing!
Looking forward to hear more from your adventures in the USA.
Have a good trip
greetings from austria
Bernd
Hi Daniel!!!
Yeah, just took another reading session of your adventures!! I just love your pictures! Hehe, and the one with Josua and you sitting on the ground reminded me somehow of Supertramp and his Superapple in “Into the Wild”! Do you know that movie? If not, watch out for it!
I thought about your concerns on writing this blog, upload pics etc.
I would definitely be very sad if I could not learn about your journey any more!!! As a lot of people in the meanwhile I guess!!!
And I think that YOU will be so happy to be able to read all this in a couple of years!!!
I know it’s hard to keep writing diaries and stuff like that rolling, but from my own experience, it’s just so cool to read what you’ve written years ago!!!
Hence my suggestion: Keep it going!!! And I will keep on supporting you!!
Cheers, grand rouleur du monde!!!
mat
Daniel
We are glad to note thet you made it safely to San Francisco and that you obviously have a good time there.
If you have time to spare, try to bike through the amazing Redwood stands north of San Fran. The nearest are not so far away. You can camp cheaply in the State Park camping grounds. (Hikers and Bikers sites).
We will follow you through your web site.
Safe and enjoyable riding.
Arnold and Marieke
Daniel,
I just caught up on your stories and pics. Fantastic panoramas as usual
Your stories make me look forward to being home again!
I am here in Xinjiang, China, taking a week off. I need to recharge my batteries, as this whole skating thing has taken it’s toll.
Did you ever use Autostitch in China? I have tried using it on a few computers, but it seems to not work properly on the Chinese windows platform. When I select the pics I want to stitch, it keeps coming up with an error message telling me to “Please Select Two or More Pictures”, even though I have selected more than two pictures…for the meantime I am just using the standard Canon Photostitch software again, which does not stitch as nicely (you can see the seams more often).
Anyway, all the best for the US – watch out for those scary SUVs.
Rob
@Bernd: Yes, amazing it was, San Francisco! I love that city!
@Mathis: Don’t know “Into the wild”, but definitely have to watch it one day – sounds pretty interesting.
I’m reading the “Digital Photography Book Vol. 2″ by Scott Kelby at the moment and hope to improve the quality of the pictures in future – thinking about gettin’ the Canon 400D or 450D camera soon so when I’m on the road with my father we can get even better pictures with different lenses, filters and remote control for more pictures on the bike
These days my diary fills with entries – as the days are longer I can cycle further and even have a lot of time and energy to write long long stories into my diary in the evenings – I’d write a lot more online and probably will soon when I have a laptop (and bicycle-charger therefore) available in the evenings.
The Adventure Cycling Association you kindly sponsored me are phenomenal! Thanks a lot! And cycling here in the US rocks! The scenery, the changes in the landscape and especially the people! Wheeee!
@Arnold and Marieke: Hey! The time in SF couldn’t have been better and I was lucky to find a nice host, Asha, over the WarmShowers touring cyclist hospitality list. She’s a environmental and social rights activist, writer, touring cyclist and a lot more and I was really lucky to stay at Station 40 with all the other great people! All the best to NZ, enjoy your rides and I don’t regret you for your short winter days
@Rob: I see you’re enjoying China right now. Enjoy the food as it’ll get much more expensive back in NZ and a few fat reserves won’t do you any bad?
I didn’t use autostitch in China – back there I didn’t know a way to stitch my panos yet. But maybe try a different internet cafe or a different software – look on flickr for the autostitch group – they have a thread where they mention a software from Micro$oft that also stitches panos and is free. Happy skating!